Statute of Limitations

A deadline, set by statute, after which a legal claim can no longer be brought at all.

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What it means

A statute of limitations is a filing deadline. Once it passes, a claim that would otherwise have succeeded can usually be dismissed without the facts ever being examined - which makes it one of the few legal rules that can end a case entirely on its own.

Three things make these deadlines harder to apply than they look. First, the length depends on the kind of claim, not on the incident: a single event can produce two claims with two different deadlines. Second, the clock does not always start on the day something happened - many claims start the clock when the harm was discovered, or reasonably should have been. Third, the clock can be paused or extended in defined circumstances, and separate, often much shorter, notice deadlines can apply to claims against government bodies.

This page states no time periods. Periods are set state by state and claim by claim, and a number quoted for the wrong state or the wrong kind of claim is worse than no number at all. The only reliable way to establish a specific deadline is to have the applicable statute identified for the specific claim.

Several doctrines move the start or the end of the clock. Under the discovery rule, used for many claims, the period starts when the injured person knew or reasonably should have known of the injury and its cause. Tolling pauses the clock, commonly while the claimant is a minor or legally incapacitated, and some courts apply equitable tolling when a diligent claimant was prevented from filing by extraordinary circumstances. A statute of repose is different: it runs from a fixed event, such as the completion of a building or the sale of a product, regardless of when the harm was discovered, and it is generally not subject to equitable tolling (CTS Corp. v. Waldburger, 573 U.S. 1 (2014)). Whether a discovery rule applies depends on the statute's own wording. The Supreme Court held that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act's limitation period runs from the date of the violation, not from its discovery (Rotkiske v. Klemm, 589 U.S. 8 (2019)).

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

This is the single most time-sensitive reason to speak to a lawyer early, because it is the one problem that cannot be repaired afterwards. If a deadline may be close, the useful call is the one made before it is confirmed, not after.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

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Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• AppealThe review of a trial court's decision by a higher court - what can be appealed and when (the final-judgment rule and its exceptions), the notice of appeal and why missing it is fatal, what "standard of review" means and why most appeals are lost on it, preserving error at trial, the record and briefs, and what an appellate court can and cannot do with the result.
• Attorney-Client Privilege and Work ProductThe two protections that keep what a client tells a lawyer, and what a lawyer prepares for a case, from being forced into evidence - what the privilege covers and what it does not, who holds it and how it is waived, the crime-fraud exception, the separate and narrower work-product doctrine, and how each is asserted in discovery.
• Burden of Proof (Standards of Proof)Who has to prove what, and how convincingly, before a court will rule for them - the difference between the burden of production and the burden of persuasion, the three standards (preponderance of the evidence, clear and convincing evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt) and where each applies, presumptions that shift the burden, and why the burden decides cases where the evidence is in balance.
• Complaint and Answer (Pleadings)The documents that start a civil case and frame what it is about - what a complaint must contain, how a defendant answers it, what an admission, denial and affirmative defense each do, counterclaims and cross-claims, and what happens when a pleading is late, deficient or needs to be amended.
• Contempt of CourtThe court's power to punish disobedience of its own orders - the mechanism that makes a court order more than a piece of paper.
• Court Fee Waiver (In Forma Pauperis)How a person who cannot afford court filing fees asks the court to excuse them - the federal and state procedures, who usually qualifies, and what a waiver does not cover.
• Default JudgmentA judgment entered because the person sued did not respond in time - the way most consumer debt lawsuits actually end.
• Demand LetterThe letter that states a claim and asks for payment or action before a lawsuit: when one is legally required, what it should say, how settlement communications are protected, and what not to put in it.
• DepositionSworn, recorded, out-of-court questioning of a witness by the opposing lawyer, before any trial.
• DiscoveryThe pre-trial process in which each side must hand over relevant evidence to the other.
• Expert Witness (Daubert and Frye)A witness allowed to give opinions rather than only facts because of specialized knowledge - who qualifies, the gatekeeping test a judge applies to the reliability of the method (Daubert in federal court and most states, Frye in the rest), the written report and deposition that precede trial, the difference between a retained expert and a treating professional, and why a case can be lost when its expert is excluded.
• Fee Agreement and RetainerThe engagement letter that sets what a lawyer will do and how they are paid - hourly, flat or contingent fees, retainers held in trust, costs, and what to do about a fee dispute.
• Force Majeure ClauseThe contract clause that excuses or suspends performance when events beyond a party's control prevent it, how courts read it narrowly, and the impossibility and frustration doctrines that apply when there is no clause.
• Injunction and Temporary Restraining OrderThe court orders that require a party to do or stop doing something rather than pay money - the three stages (temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, permanent injunction), the four-factor test for emergency relief, the bond the applicant must post, how an order is enforced through contempt, and why a violated order is obeyed first and challenged second.
• Jurisdiction and VenueThe three questions every lawsuit has to answer before its merits can be heard - whether the court has power over this kind of case (subject-matter jurisdiction), power over this defendant (personal jurisdiction), and whether this is the right place within the system to bring it (venue) - what each requires, how each is challenged, and why a judgment entered without jurisdiction is void.
• Limited-Scope Representation (Unbundled Legal Services)Hiring a lawyer for one defined part of a legal matter - advice, drafting a document, or a single hearing - instead of the whole case, and the written agreement that sets the boundary.
• Mediation and ArbitrationTwo ways of resolving a dispute outside a trial that are constantly confused - one produces an agreement you can walk away from, the other a decision you generally cannot appeal.
• Motion to DismissA request to end a case at the outset on the basis that, even if everything alleged is true, it does not amount to a legal claim.
• Pro Bono Legal HelpFree legal work by volunteer lawyers - what the professional rules ask of lawyers, how people of limited means are matched with a volunteer, and why it is not the same as legal aid.
• Release and Settlement AgreementThe document that ends a claim by giving up the right to bring it - normally final, and normally broader than people expect.
• Representing Yourself (Pro Se)The right to conduct your own case without a lawyer - available in almost every civil court, and held to almost the same standards as a lawyer.
• Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel (Preclusion)The rules that stop a dispute from being litigated twice - claim preclusion, which bars a second suit on a claim that was or could have been decided, and issue preclusion, which bars re-arguing a specific issue actually decided, the elements of each, who is bound, the exceptions, and why "could have been raised" is the part that surprises people.
• Service of ProcessThe formal delivery of court papers that gives a court power over the person sued - and the step whose failure undoes more judgments than any other.
• Small Claims CourtA simplified court for lower-value disputes, designed to be used without a lawyer - and in some states lawyers are not allowed in it at all.
• Statute of FraudsThe rule that certain contracts - for land, for goods above a threshold, for guarantees and for agreements that cannot be completed within a year - must be evidenced by a signed writing, and the exceptions that let an oral deal be enforced anyway.
• SubpoenaA court-backed order to give evidence or hand over documents - enforceable against people who are not parties to the case at all.
• Summary JudgmentA ruling that decides a case, or part of one, without a trial because the essential facts are not genuinely in dispute.
• Vacating an Arbitration AwardWhy an arbitrator's award is so hard to overturn, the narrow grounds on which a court can vacate or modify one, the short deadline to ask, and how a winning party turns an award into a court judgment.

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